DARPA Plans to Deploy On-Demand, Disposable Satellites

When it comes to envisioning the future and then making that vision a reality, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) remains one of the U.S. government's leading assets. Now DARPA has a new groundbreaking idea to revolutionize global communication that involves quickly deployed, disposable satellites.

By now most of us are familiar with the Hollywood images of spy satellites zooming in on a particular hotspot with lightning speed and accuracy, but the truth is that satellite operators are often forced to wait as existing satellites slowly move into position for optimum viewing. DARPA's new SeeMe program (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements) hopes to change all that.

Commenting on the essentials of the new program, Dave Barnhart, DARPA program manager, said, "We envision a constellation of small satellites, at a fraction of the cost of airborne systems, that would allow deployed warfighters overseas to hit 'see me' on existing handheld devices and in less than 90 minutes receive a satellite image of their precise location to aid in mission planning."

According to DARPA, part of accomplishing this task will involve harnessing what we've learned from another cutting-edge industry, mobile phones. Elaborating on this point, Barnhart said, "To create inexpensive, easily manufacturable small satellites costing $500,000 apiece will require leveraging existing non-traditional aerospace off-the-shelf technologies for rapid manufacturing, such as the mobile phone industry's original design manufacturers, as well as developing advanced technologies for optics, power, propulsion and communications to keep size and weight down."

Of course, the first thing some will consider regarding such an ambitious project is how it may suddenly fill the atmosphere with an inordinate amount of space junk, adding to an increasingly space-debris littered skyscape. But the brains behind the SeeMe program don't believe this will be a problem because each satellite in the low-earth orbit constellation of up to two-dozen satellites will only last 60-90 days, after which they will de-orbit and burn up upon reentry.

As any amateur Internet historian knows, early DARPA research was essential to the creation of the Internet, therefore this new approach to satellites hints at a wide range of exciting possibilities in the future for consumers. Later this month, DARPA will hold a Proposers' Day during which new ideas from professionals from the worlds of medical pneumatics, automobile racing, mobile phones, industrial machinery, and optics will present new ideas designed to aid the SeeMe program. If you happen to consider yourself among that elite group of innovators, you can find out more about the Proposers' Day on signup4.net.

In October, DARPA outlined a plan, dubbed the Phoenix Program, that would salvage working parts from retired or dead satellites and reuse them on other projects.

Today's news, meanwhile, comes several days after DARPA boss Regina Dugan announced plans to leave the Pentagon and take a position at Google.